Day 89: Hopeful News

The weekend of mass shootings followed another week of rising Covid cases, however, the Biden-Harris Administration remains confident in their rollout.

“I want to tell you today that things are about to get a whole lot easier,” Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt, a senior member of the White House’s COVID-19 Response Team, said via teleconference today.

Since January, he added, “…Over 80 percent of seniors have had at least their first shot, up from 8 percent. And now, 50 percent of adults in the U.S. have had at least one shot, up from 5 percent.”

Reports of blood clots in less than a dozen people in the U.S., earlier this month, led to suspension of production and likely more hesitancy around taking the vaccine.

Still, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says they’ve nearly reached the 100-day goal with 10 days left.

“This brings us to 192.8 million doses in the first 100 days — 96 percent of our goal in 88 days… almost 40 percent of the total population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and one out of every four people is fully vaccinated.”

Walensky noted concerns that cases are rising among young people, as major cities around the nation are braced for protest following a verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial. “I want to recognize that we remain in a complicated stage. On the one hand, more people in the United States are being vaccinated every single day at an accelerated pace. On the other hand, cases and hospitalizations are increasing in some areas of the country, and cases among younger people who have not yet been vaccinated are also increasing,” she said.

At least 100 people were arrested in Minnesota over the weekend, during protests for Daunte Wright.